Hermione put Crissy down to play in her playpen when Draco walked back into the living room. Clearly he finished with his shower, because he was once again shirtless, wearing only a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips. The cloth bandaged was bundled up in his hand instead of being wrapped around his torso exposing his bruised ribs, which fortunately were not as dark and angry looking as they were the night before.

“I’m reading for you to rub me down and wrap me up now. Where do you want me?”

She was about to tell him to sit down on the sofa since they were already in the living room and his jar of healing ointment sat on the coffee table. But then she remembered what happened in that very spot last night after she ‘rubbed him down’ and how he kissed her and then she…well, she practically threw herself at him and actually asked him to touch…Oh God!

After all of the stress with taking Crissy to the healers late into the night she had completely forgot about that. If they didn’t get interrupted by Crissy how far would she have gone with him? Her face felt like it had burst into flames as she continued to stare at the sofa, not able to take her eyes off it. She didn’t even notice when Draco walked over to her and stood in front of her.

“Are you okay? Your face became really flushed all of a sudden.” He put his palm against her cheek as he looked into her eyes, concern etched on his face.

“I’m…I’m fine.” She said clearing her throat and looking away from the sofa.

“You’re not feeling nauseous or anything are you?” Draco asked still looking at her with concern.

She shook her head. “Why don’t you go have a seat at the dining table and I’ll be there in a second.” She told him looking anywhere but him of the blasted sofa.

“Why can’t we just do it on the sofa?”

“What?” she gasped getting a panicky feeling inside her chest. Did he actually ask if they could do IT on the sofa?

“Well I’m just thinking it would be more comfortable then the dining table.” He told her giving her a wink.

Her eyes widened, did he actually think she was suggesting doing it on the table? She took a deep breath, okay she needed to get her bearings and gather her thoughts.

“Draco…I think we need to slow down a bit. I know last night I was a bit…um forward. But I’m not normally like that. I’m sorry if I led you on last night, but I’m not ready to go that far in our relationship. And besides I think it would be extremely inappropriate to um, do such a think now, especially with Crissy in the room.”

Draco shook his head. “Hermione that’s not what I was talking about.” He told her looking confused and amused at the same time.

“It’s not? Then what were you talking about?”

He walked around the sofa to pick up the ointment. “I was talking about where you wanted me to sit so you could put this smelling goo on my back.” He told her, obviously trying to fight back a smile.

She felt her face heat up again, only this time it was an inferno. How could she be so stupid, so daft? Of course he was talking about that, and not about…it. Oh Merlin, what a fool she was.

“Oh right.” She said mortified as she covered her heated face with her hands.

Draco walked back up to her and gently took hold of her hands and pulled them away from her face. “Don’t be embarrassed.” He said gently. She wouldn’t look at him even though he was still standing in from of her holding her hands. “Did you really think I was talking about sex?” he asked her with a slight teasing tone.

“Yeah kind of.” She grimaced, still not looking at him.

Draco let go of one of her hands and brought his fingers to her chin making her look at him. “Hermione if I’m talking about making love with you, you’d know it.” He told her seriously.

She sucked in a shaking breath not knowing how to respond to that.

“About last night…” He started to say until she decided to cut him off.

“Can we please not…” But Draco put a finger to her lips stopping her.

“Let me finish.” He said quietly then waited until she gave him the okay to go ahead. “You know I would never pressure you right?” She nodded. “And I would never do anything until you were ready or wanted to move forward.”

She nodded again and let out the breath that she had been holding. “I’m sorry I’m being so difficult. I mean last night I practically threw myself at you and now I’m telling you I’m not ready to go that far…”

“Hermione it’s okay, even though last night I definitely wasn’t complaining, but we’ll go slow, see where this leads…if you want to.”

She nodded okay. “Okay thanks.” She said quietly noticing that he only stood a couple of inches away and his hand dropped down to caress the side of her neck, while his fingers played with a couple stray curls that escaped her clip.

Her gazed fell to his lips which were parted. For a guy he had really nice lips, slightly full without being feminine and petal soft which she knew from previous encounters.

“Okay good.” He murmured in a husky tone as his gaze fell to her lips as well, but then quickly took a step back; breaking whatever spell that had come over them. He held up the jar of ointment in front of her face. “Where do you want me?”

She cleared her throat. “The sofa’s fine.”

She watched him as he walked around the sofa and sat down. She was such a hypocrite, she kept saying she wanted to take things slow and that she wasn’t ready. But at this moment she really wished she hadn’t said anything at all and she really, really wished that he would have forgotten everything she said as well and kissed her.

Draco tried his best not to move or even glance over at Hermione or thinking about the way her small slender fingers felt on his bare skin as she rubbed the ointment over his back and battered ribs. Thank Merlin for small favors with Crissy in her playpen completely oblivious to them as she played with her stuffed dragon, but acted as a miniature chaperone regardless. If it wasn’t for her then he was afraid he would be the one throwing himself at Hermione.

But he couldn’t do that anyway, because Hermione told him she wasn’t ready and he needed to gain her trust so he could convince her to stay in this time with him. And right now was not a good time to recall what happened last night after she finished dressing his wounds and how good she tasted when he kissed her, and how good she felt in his arms and in his hands when he touched her.
“Okay done.” Hermione said almost too cheery breaking him out of his lust filled daze.

He stayed seated on the sofa, afraid he might embarrass himself if he stood up now. He watched as she got up and walked over to Crissy and bent over and picked her up.

“I was thinking about taking Crissy to the park today. Do you want to come?” She asked him innocently completely unaware of how badly he wanted to take her right now.

He cleared his throat which had suddenly become very dry. “Sure.”

Hermione’s eyebrows bunched up together in concern. “Are you okay? Are you in pain?”

He shook his head. “Nope I’m fine.” He was in pain, but not the kind she was thinking about, if only she knew.

She nodded slowly. “Okay.” Then adjusted Crissy so she sat higher on her hip. “Well I’m going to go get Crissy ready. You should probably put a shirt on now.” She told him blushing then promptly walked out of the room.

When he came back into the room after he finished getting dressed he noticed Hermione had Crissy dressed and ready to go. She looked up at him while packing Crissy’s bag full of necessities incase Crissy became hungry, thirsty, dirty, wet, whatever…you never knew with this little one.

“Ready?”

He nodded. “Ready whenever you are.”

“Yep, just give me one second,” she packed one last bottle of juice in the bag. “Okay ready.”
She grabbed the bag and he went and got Crissy, then followed her out of the door that led to where the automobiles were parked. He walked towards the red ‘minivan’ as Hermione called it and opened the side door to put Crissy in her special seat.

“What are you doing?” Hermione asked him as she opened the back hatch on the vehicle.

“Um I’m strapping Crissy in.”

“Oh we’re not taking the van.” She told him, Crissy looked up at him with big her big brown eyes so much like her mother’s as if to tell him ‘duh.’

“We’re not?” he asked looking over to the other vehicle, the black sexier looking one.

Hermione followed his gaze and smirked. “We’re not taking that either.” She told him pulling out the baby stroller from the back and popping it together.

“Then what are we doing, I thought we were going to the park?”

She walked up to him and took Crissy and put her in the stroller. “We are and we’re going to walk there.”

“Walk there?”

He must have had some kind of worried expression on his face, because Hermione rolled her eyes at him and said, “relax it’s just down the street. It’s not far.”

They made their way down the road towards the park, enjoying the nice weather. All the awkward tension from before gone as they walked in a comfortable silence that fell between them which Crissy cheerfully mumbled random nothings that only she could understand.

He still needed to figure out a way to convince her to stay in this time. He needed to get her to trust him, more then she already did and care about him. Maybe if he tried to court her, she would be more willing to stay? Okay that sounded stupid even to him, but any little thing could help. If only he could make them stay until the baby was born then she would have to stay, because there was no way she would leave the baby behind.

This was all beginning to sound sneaky and selfish, but he was a Slytherin, it’s what he’s good at. Maybe he could convince her that he would help her with the potion, but then forget, “accidentally” of course, to leave one ingredient out or slightly alter it without her knowing so the potion doesn’t work and won’t send them back…Of course that could be dangerous for both of them. Maybe he should just focus on getting her to trust him first and then work on all the little details later.

“No because I really want tacos with extra jalapenos and salsa, but I also really want fried rice with eggrolls…lots of eggrolls. Why can’t they make a restaurant where they combine Chinese and Mexican foods together, like a Chinese-Mexican fusion cuisine? Merlin I’m starving.” She told him grabbing a hold of her stomach as it growling loudly.

He laughed even harder. “Don’t you have a stash of pickles packed in Crissy’s bag or something?”

“Sadly no.” She told him frowning. “But I don’t have granola bars and some biscuits.” She unzipped Crissy diaper bag and pulled out a bag of chocolate biscuits and took a couple then handed him the back to take some. “Mmm better…but I still want tacos.” She told him after eating her handful of biscuits.

They finally got to the park which really was right at the end of the street. It was just a small area with equipment for children to play in, and a couple of benches and picnic tables surrounded by tall lush trees and an abundance of blooming flowers everywhere. There was even a small pond with a family of ducks who took residence in it. There was an elderly couple sitting on one of the benches watching the ducks swim about, but other than them, they had the park to themselves.

Turns out Crissy loves the swings, there was even a special swing for her to sit in without falling off it. The higher he pushed her the louder she squealed. Hermione stood in front of them taking pictures of Crissy with her muggle camera and cheering on Crissy as she swung back and forth. It sounded ridiculous, but he was actually having a good time, watching his daughter having a blast on something so simple as a swing. Her gummy smiles and high pitched squeals were infectious and he couldn’t help but smile and laugh back at her happiness. Even Hermione joined in and sat in the swing next to Crissy and started swinging herself.

After all the excitement at the swings they sat on one of the benches by the duck pond and fed the ducks old bread crumbs that Hermione packed in her bag. And then after a quick snack they headed back home.

“I can’t believe you encouraged her to keep saying that.” Hermione kept telling him as they walking into their kitchen after they got back from the park.

“For the record, I never told her to say anything. She was the one who said the word and then kept repeating it.” He told her.

“Yeah because you kept laughing every time she said it and she thought she was doing funning so she kept saying it. She’s just a baby, she didn’t know any better. And now because of you she will refer to ducks as S.U.C.K.S” Hermione told him spelling out the work ‘suck’ so Crissy wouldn’t repeat it.

He rolled his eyes at Hermione who was clearly overacting. “It’s not like it’s a curse work or anything…it could be worse, much worse. And she will eventually learn that duck starts with a ‘d’ and not an ‘s’.”

“It’s still inappropriate that she says that word. It implies negativity. Children her age are very impressionable and she will pick up everything we say and do. So we just have to be more careful about what we say around her. And no more laughing every time she says something like that again.”

He held up his hands at her. “I’ll try not to next time. But you have to admit it was kind of adorable when she did that.”

“The couple who were sitting on the bench next to us certainly didn’t think it was adorable. They looked at us like we were horrible parents.”

“Who cares what they think of us. They don’t know us and we don’t know them. We’ve only been at this parenting thing for a little over a week now. We can’t be expected to get everything perfect. It’s not the end of the world and like I told you earlier it could have been much worse.”

“Your right it could have been worse. But that still doesn’t mean I’m okay with it.”

“Let’s just agree to disagree. And besides we still ended up having a good time at the park. Let’s not ruin it by fighting.”

“We did have a good time and other then the punctuation issue, Crissy really did enjoy feeding the ducks.”

He smiled at the memory. “Speaking of Crissy. I think she’s about to pass out, so I’m going to go ahead and put her down for her nap.” He looked down at the little girl in his arms who was resting her head on his shoulder as she watched the two of them with sleepy eyes.

Hermione walked up to them and leaned in and kissed Crissy on the cheek then ran a hand through her curls. “Okay while you do that, I’m going to grab something to eat.” She told him as she walked to the refrigerator.

“You’re still hungry?”

“Mmmhmm.” He heard her murmur as she had her head buried in the refrigerator looking for something to eat.

Draco walked into the living room after putting Crissy down for her nap to see Hermione sitting in the middle of the sofa, sideways with her feet propped up on the back of the sofa with a pillow supporting her back. It looked like a very odd position but she looked comfortable there reading a book and eating her ever present pickles. He walked over to her and sat down on the other side of the sofa next to her. He already had his next plan formed in his head on how he was going to charm her and attempt to gain her trust.

“Did you get Crissy to fall asleep okay?” she asked him, not taking her eyes off the book she was reading.

“Yep, she went down fine. Um do you by chance want to go for a ride?”

“A ride? To where?”

He shrugged. “Anywhere. We don’t have to go far, maybe around the neighborhood for a bit.”

“You want to drive around the neighborhood?”

“No not drive, fly.”

“You want to go flying?” she put her book down and turned so she could look at him. “But you’re not allowed to fly. Not for a couple of days at least.”

“Which is why I was hoping you could be the one doing the flying and I’ll ride along.”

“But I can’t fly, I…I don’t really know how. I mean I know the basic fundamentals in case of an emergency but that’s it.”

“So I’ll teach you.”

“I don’t know Draco.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still scared of flying? The other night you loved it.”

“Yeah but that was when I was just riding along, not doing the actual flying.”

“It’s not that much different, you just have a bit more control over the broom then you do when you’re riding along. Please, it will just be for an half an hour or so.”

“You want to go now? But you just put Crissy down for her nap. Who is going to be here to watch over her?”

“Ziggy.” He watched as Hermione chewed on her lower lip thinking it over. “Okay but just for an half an hour and I’m not going to go too fast or too high. And if I don’t like it we’re coming down.”

“Deal.” He told her grinning from ear to ear.

She shook her head. “You can’t go for one day without getting on a broom can you?”

He just smiled at her.

Draco got his broom prepared and waited for Hermione to finish talking to Ziggy and come out and join him. He somehow managed to go for most of the day keeping his hands to himself and not touching her except for when she had to put the ointment on his side…and when he made her kiss him this morning before they got the news from Candlewick, which already seemed like ages ago when that happened. Now with this he would be able to be close to her in an intimate setting or at least he was going to do his best to make it intimate, but not too much to scare her off.

He wanted to gain her trust and at the same time do his best to seduce her as well. He watched as she came out the back door and into the backyard where he was. He noticed that she put her hair back into a single braid that hung down her back instead of the usual clip that held all of her hair in place.

Once she walked up to him she let out a shaky breath. “I can’t believe you talked me into doing this.”

“You’ll have fun trust me.” She just rolled her eyes at him. “You changed your hair.” He said casually.

“Oh.” She reached up and pushed stray curl from her eyes. “I just thought it would be easier to manage and it wouldn’t be flying all over the place.”

The curl she just pushed back fell back into her eyes, so he reached out and tuck it behind her ear, then let his fingers linger there longer than necessary. “I like it like that.”

Her cheeks blushed a rosy pink. “Okay.” She murmured quietly.

“Alright let’s do this.” He told her positioning the broom so they could mount it.

She let out another deep breath. “Yeah okay.” Then swung her leg over the broom and at down.

He followed her and sat behind her wrapping his arms around her belly. She sucked in a surprised gasp as he pulled himself closer to her back so his thighs hugged the back of hers; his lips brushed the crook of her neck.

“Okay put your hands on the top of the broom handle; your left hand should go in front of your right. And make sure to leave a little space in between so you can have more control of your movements on the broom.” He directed.

She did as she was told.

“Okay good and whatever you do, don’t let go.” He stroked his thumbs over her belly and up along her ribs and higher still but not quite where he really wanted to go. “What did I say?”

“Don’t let go.” She whispered.

He told her where to put her feet. Taking one hand, while the other still stroked her belly he helped set her foot in the proper position on the foot petal, then switched and did the same to the other side. She must have felt unbalanced, because she sat up and took her right hand off the broom and reached back and grabbed hold of his thigh to steady herself.

He directed her hand back to the handle. “You have to hold on no matter what happens.” He whispered in her ear.

He felt her shiver and he noticed goosebumps rise up on her skin and he doubted it was from the slight breeze in the air. She tried to turn her head to look at him, but he held her still.

“Always face forward; you want to keep your eyes on where you’re going.” He slid his hands up her stomach, up and down until he felt her shiver again and felt her take in a shaky breath.

“Draco…” She broke off with a gasp as his fingers brushed the undersides of her breasts.

“When you want to turn, you’re going to shift your body to the right or left, guiding your broom with your right hand. The same goes for whether you want to go up on down. Slightly pull up on your broom to go higher or aim it down to go lower. Did you get all of that?”

She nodded, “shift my body.”

He made another pass with his thumbs, higher now and then back down. She shivered again and leaned into his touch. Merlin, if he kept this up even he might not be able to fly. Even the smell of her hair was turning him on and every time she shivered against his touch it just encouraged him even more.

“When you’re up in the air you want to lean forward with your body to go forward. The more you lean, the faster you will go.”

Somehow during his instructions his hands managed to sneak under her shirt and were now stroking the skin of her belly.

“Draco?”

“Yeah.” His voice sounded huskier then it had before.

“I’m having a really hard time concentrating.” He shifted against her and she pressed back and gasped when she felt his arousal against her back. “I guess I’m not the only one. “She laughed.

Merlin he was beginning to love the sound of her laugh.

“I can’t fly when you do that.” She murmured.

“The talking or touching?”

“Both…so how do I get up in the air?”

“You just kick off the ground and point the broom in the direction you want to go.”

“Okay and how do I stop?”

“Just sit up and slightly pull the tip of the broom up.” He pulled his hands from beneath her shirt and wrapped his arms around her. “Ready?”

She let out a shaky breath. “Yeah I think so.” She positioned herself in the way he showed her and he leaned into her back prepared for the takeoff. She glanced back at him. “Hold on and don’t let go.”

“I won’t.” He told her and with that she kicked off the ground.

AN: Hey everyone so I hope you liked this chapter. More exciting stuff to come so just hang tight. And as always keep reading and reviewing.